THE   PROVINCE   LAWS 


ilifornia 

ional 

ility 


THE   PROVINCE   LAWS 


THEIR  VALUE,  AND 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  NEW  EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
CUPPLES,  UPHAM  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS. 

THE    OLD  CORNER   BOOKSTORE. 

1885. 


PKKSS  OF  DAVID  CLAPP  &  SON. 


PREFACE. 


THE  author  of  this  pamphlet  was  for  more  than  twenty  years  a 
fellow  townsman,  and  during  the  years  1861  and  1862  a  student  at 
law,  of  the  late  Ellis  Ames,  senior  editor,  after  the  death  of  Gov. 
Clifford,  of  the  Province  Laws,  now  being  reprinted  by  authority  of 
the  Commonwealth.  Having  from  childhood  taken  a  deep  interest 
in  local  history,  and  having  enjoyed  exceptional  opportunities  of 
observing  the  devotion  with  which  his  departed  friend  labored  to 
collect  and  preserve  for  public  use  the  rare  and  fading  pages  of  the 
legislation  of  the  Colony  and  Province,  upon  which  our  state  super- 
structure is  erected,  he  naturally  took  some  interest  in  the  work. 
He  frequently  listened  to  the  conversations  between  Gov.  Clifford 
and  Mr.  Ames  upon  the  subject,  and  well  remembers  the  large 
bossed  safe  and  the  antique  bookshelves  that  held  the  rare  old  jewels, 
that,  covered  with  dust  and  liable  any  day  to  be  burned,  adorned 
one  side  of  this  musty  old  office. 

Again,  some  two  years  ago  the  writer  heard  a  distinguished  anti- 
quary, a  resident  of  New  York  City,  in  the  course  of  conversation 
say,  "That  the  great  object  of  his  life  was  to  complete  his  set  of 
Massachusetts  early  laws."  The  next  express  that  went  to  New 
York  carried  over  twelve  hundred  pages  of  Acts  and  Resolves, 
Journals  of  the  House,  Perpetual  and  Temporary  Laws,  passed  be- 
tween the  years  1684  and  1779.  Since  this  article  was  commenced 
the  writer  has  been  informed  that  the  set,  owned  by  his  own  state, 
was  not  complete,  and  that  three  pages  of  this  collection,  given  out 
of  the  state  if  for  sale  to-day,  would  bring  their  weight  in  diamonds. 
He  deeply  regrets  that  the  few  hundred  pages  he  now  has,  are  not 
of  equal  value. 

Havino-  had  occasion  to  frequently  use  the  volumes  of  the  Province 
Laws  which  have  been  published,  and  gleaning  much  material  of 
historical  value  from  them,  it  was  with  some  surprise  that  he  read 
the  doubt  expressed  in  the  recent  message  of  Gov.  George  D. 
Robinson,  as  to  how  far  the  work  is  to  be  carried,  and  what  amount 


of  money  is  "reasonably  proper"  to  continue  the  undertaking. 
Whether  the  doubt  arises  from  unfamiliarity  with  the  subject, 
whether  the  Governor  has  been  led  to  believe  that  some  other 
department  can  use  this  money  to  better  advantage,  or  whether,  if 
retrenchment  must  come,  there  will  be  less  of  a  contest  with  histo- 
rians than  with  politicians,  we  are  not  informed.  The  Governor 
has  simply  called  the  attention  of  the  Legislature  to  the  question 
whether  the  expense  of  the  work  is  disproportionate  to  its  usefulness. 

No  one  having  come  forward  to  give  to  the  public  those  details  in 
relation  to  the  purposes  of  the  work,  which  the  citizens  have  a  right 
to  know,  and  in  which  it  may  be  reasonably  supposed,  in  view  of 
the  prominence  which  the  Governor  has  given  to  the  subject,  they 
would  be  likely  to  take  an  interest,  the  writer  offers  this  pamphlet 
to  supply,  as  far  as  in  his  ability  lies,  the  information  withheld  in 
His  Excellency's  Address. 

In  publishing  these  pages  the  author  has  a  two-fold  satisfaction  : 
first,  it  gives  him  an  opportunity  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a 
profound,  laborious,  and  useful  worker  in  the  law,  who  was  more 
eager  to  obtain  and  impart  knowledge  than  to  seek  position  or 
parade  his  achievements,  a  dear,  kind  hearted  friend  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century. 

And  secondly,  to  give  his  fellow  citizens  some  idea  of  the  value 
and  progress  of  a  work,  the  importance  of  which  may  be  estimated, 
when  it  is  known  that  even  to  the  legal  profession  it  is  the  revelation 
of  a  body  of  laws,  imposed  upon  us  by  the  constitution,  but  of  which 
even  our  judges  have  had  no  knowledge,  except  what  they  have 
obtained  from  a  few  experts  who  enjoyed  a  monopoly  in  this  branch 
of  learning,  by  having  spent  their  lives  in  accumulating  and  becom- 
ing at  last  the  fortunate  possessors  of  two  or  three  sets  of  the  early 
laws,  none  of  which  were  complete. 

DANIEL  T.  V.  HUNTOON. 

Canton,  Feb.  20,  1885. 


PROVINCE    LAWS. 


IN  the  recent  message  of  Gov.  George  D.  Robinson,  the  following 
paragraph  appears  under  the  heading  "  Provincial  Laws." 

"In  1865  and  1867  authority  to  publish  the  acts  and  laws  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  given,  and  to  the  present  time  four  volumes 
have  been  issued  and  distributed,  and  another  volume  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
printer.  The  expenditures,  authorized  by  appropriations  from  year  to  year, 
amount  now  to  $77,505.75.  The  work,  without  doubt,  has  been  well  done ; 
but  would  it  not  be  well  to  inquire  what  limit  to  its  extent  and  cost  is 
reasonably  proper?  The  Governor  and  Council,  to  whom  the  authority  for 
publication  is  committed,  can  exercise  but  little  discretion  in  this  matter,  in 
view  of  the  grauts  of  money  made  by  the  Legislature  from  time  to  time." 

The  resolve  of  1865  alluded  to  by  the  Governor,  authorized  the 
appointment  of  three  or  more  commissioners,  "  to  prepare  for  publi- 
cation a  complete  copy  of  the  statutes  and  laws  of  the  Province  and 
State  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  from  the  time  of  the  Province  Charter 
to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  commonwealth,  including 
all  the  session  acts,  private  and  public,  general  and  special,  tempo- 
rary and  perpetual,  passed  from  time  to  time  by  the  General  Court; 
all  incorporations  of  towns  and  parishes,  and  all  other  legislative 
acts  of  legal  or  historic  importance,  appearing  on  the  records  of  the 
General  Court,  with  suitable  marginal  references  to  the  statutes  and 
judicial  decisions  of  the  Province  and  Commonwealth ;  the  orders  of 
the  King  in  Council,  and  to  such  other  authorities  as,  in  their  opinion, 
may  enhance  the  value  and  usefulness  of  the  work;  and  to  append 
to  the  same  a  complete  index." 

The  commissioners  appointed  under  this  resolve,  were  presumed 
to  be  the  best  that  could  be  selected  in  the  state ;  they  were  men 
prominent  in  their  profession. 

The  first  commissioner  named  was  John  H.  Clifford,  who  as  Gover- 
nor had  shown  his  love  for  the  state  by  calling  the  attention  of  his 
council  to  the  decayed  and  perishing  condition  of  the  oldest  records, 
and  in  a  special  message  on  the  twelfth  of  February,  1853,  recom- 
mended and  strongly  urged  the  printing  of  the  two  oldest  volumes, 
that  comprised  the  records  of  about  twenty  years  of  our  political 
existence.  From  his  practice  at  law,  he  knew  the  vast  importance 


of  saving  from  destruction  the  ancient  laws  of  the  state  that  had 
honored  him  with  its  highest  gift,  and  for  his  labor  on  the  Prov- 
ince Laws  deserves  the  thanks  of  all  students  of  law.  history  and 
philosophy.  , 

Next  in  order  came  Ellis  Ames,  of  Canton,  who  has  died  within 
the  past  year,  of  whom  an  eminent  lawyer  says  in  "Every  Other  Satur- 
day," under  date  of  December  6,  1884 — "Ellis  Ames  was  decidedly 
at  the^head  of  the  Norfolk*  and  Plymouth  Bars, He  was  re- 
puted the  best  equity  lawyer  in  the  state,  and  in  special  pleading, 
and  in  the  old  learning  of  the  common  law,  he  was  considered  a  great 
man.  His  preparation  of  his  cases  was  most  exhaustive ;  he  left  no 

loopholes,  and  ho  made  few  bldnders, he  was  learned,  strong 

and  honest." 

It  should  be  recorded,  because  so  uncommon  now-a  days,  that  he 
never  gave  a  friend  one  of  these  volumes  of  the  Province  Laws, 
without  paying  for  it  out  of  his  own  pocket. 

Mr.  Ellis  Ames  was  selected  as  a  member  of  the  commission,  be- 
cause he  had  been  for  many  years,  what  might  well  have  been  called, 
the  "right  bower"  of  Ihe  Supreme  Court,  in  all  matters  pertaining 
to  the  Colonial  and  Provincial  Laws;  the  judges  were  dependent 
on  him,  for  he  made  a  study  of  the  ancient  law  and  was  thoroughly 
proficient  in  it.  He  had  spent  forty  years  of  his  life,  travelled  hun- 
dreds of  miles,  in  order  to  collect  books  and  pamphlets  relating  to 
the  subject,  and  when  any  matter  of  grave  importance,  involving 
obscure  points  of  legal  history,  came  up,  his  decision  settled  it.  Be- 
fore Mr.  Ames's  day  this  position  was  accorded  to  Nathan  Dane; 
before  him,  to  Judge  Edmund  Trowbridge,  an  eminent  lawyer, 
Attorney  General  and  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Judicature, 
during  the  period  of  the  Revolution.  Before  Trowbridge,  John 
Read,  commonly  called  "  the  father  of  the  Common  Law."  All  the 
above  mentioned  were  eminent  and  profound  lawyers,  who  were 
familiar  with  these  early  laws. 

While  the  Essex  Institute's  collection ~of  the  Provincial  Statutes 
was  rare  and  valuable,  especially  in  the  earliest  Session  acts,  Mr. 
Ames's  collection  was  more  complete  and  more  methodically  arranged, 
embracing  (1)  The  Session  acts  down  to  1699,  the  date  of  the  first 
revision.  (2)  The  edition  of  1699  with  supplements  to  1714,  the 
date  of  the  second  revision.  (3)  /The  edition  of  1714  with  supple- 
ments to  1726,  the  date  of  the  third  edition.  (4)  The  edition  of 
1726  with  supplements  to  1742,  the  date  of  the  fourth  edition.  (5) 
The  edition,  Temporary  and  Perpetual,  of  1742,  with  supplements  to 
1755. 

Of  the  editions  of  1699,  1714,  1726,  1742,  1755,  1759,  1763, 
Temporary  and  Perpetual,  with  the  supp'cments  to  each,  only  one 
other  set  approaching  this  in  completion  is  known  to  exist,  and  was 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


perfected  since  this  set  was  sold  to  the  state.  It  is  in  the  Lenox 
Library  in  New  York,  and  the  writer  believes  that  the  splendid 
Psalmomm  Codex  printed  by  Faust  and  Schoeff  in  1459,  sold  recently 
for  X4.950,  would  not  be  taken  in  exchange  for  it.  We  know 
that  the  Mazarin  bible  that  was  sold  at  the  same  sale  for  £3,900 
would  have  been  no  inducement,  for  they  have  already  a  copy  for 
which  they  only  paid  in  1848  £500.  When  a  New  York  man  like 
Mr.  Lenox  gives  more  than  $2,000,000,  and  a  private  collection  of 
books,  the  rare  bibles  and  testaments  of  which  alone  are  worth 
$100,000,  and  which  he  had  been  more  than  forty  years  collecting, 
to  found  a  library  for  the  use  of  students  in  special  subjects  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  when  he,  or  after  his  death,  when  the  eminent 
historian,  whom  he  honored  with  the  guardianship  of  his  trust, 
George  H.  Moore,  LL.D.,  places  such  a  value  on'the  rubbish  of  New 
England  attics,  how  long  will  it  be  before  we  must  go 'to  New  York 
to  learn  our  own  history  ? 

And  yet,  although  the  set  of  Mr.  Ames  was  considered  perfect, 
the  diligent,  active  and  energetic  commissioners  have  added  to  the 
new  edition  of  the  Province  Laws  one  ^hundred  and  thirty-seven 
public,  and  thirty-two  private  acts  that  were  not  contained  in  Mr. 
Ames's  collection. 

The  only  surviving  member  of  this  commission  Is  Abner  Cheney 
Goodell,  Jr.,  upon  whom,  from  the  beginning,  has  fallen  all  the  detail 
of  the  work,  being  the  youngest,  having  been  appointed  when  only 
thirty-three  years  of  age.  His^tanding  was  remarkably  good,  as  a 
lawyer.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and 
soon  built  up  a  very  large  practice,  extending  beyond  his  own1 
county,  to  Suffolk  and  Norfolk  counties,  as  the  dockets  of  the  old 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  and  Superior  Court  of  Suffolk,  and  of  the 
Supreme  Judicial  Court,  will  show.  Such  was  his  position,  when 
the  solicitation  of  his  friends,  his  love  of  historic  law,  and  the 
mandate  of  the  Governor  influenced  him  to  devote  himself  to  the 
preparation  of  these  volumes  of  "  The  Province  Laws." 

His  contributions  to  history  show  marvellous  research ;  his  mono- 
graphs on  "  The  Court  Seals  "  and  "  Witchcraft "  are  well  known, 
and  have,  in  connection  with  the  "  Notes  "  on  the  latter  subject,  by 
perhaps  the  greatest  historian  in  New  York,  George  H.  Moore, 
LL.D.,  brought  out  a  mass  of  new  material,  which  illumined  by  such 
accurate,  pains-taking,  and  learned  men,  throws  a  clear,  white,  one 
might  say,  an  electric  light,  into  those  dark  and  dismal  ages  of  tho 
past. 

Mr.  Goodell  was  appointed,  perhaps,  because  he  held  the  post  of 
Vice  President  of  the  Essex  Institute,  in  the  department  of  history. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  a  life  mem- 
ber of  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical  Society,  and  corres- 
ponding member  of  the  New  York,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode 
Island  Historical  Societies.  The  commissioners  of  1811,  Dane, 


8 

Story  and  Prescott,  were  all  members  of  the  Essex  County  Historical 
Society,  which  was  merged  in  the  Institute ;  and  the  library  of  the 
latter  contained  the  ancient  volumes  of  the  Province  Laws  used  by 
the  commissioners  before  named  in  compiling  the  edition  of  1811. 
These  books  the  present  commissioners  have  made  the  best  use  of, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Essex  Institute,  even  cutting  them  up  as  copy 
for  the  printers. 

Soon  after  the  appearance  of  the  first  volume  of  this  series  of 
Province  Laws,  it  was  said  of  Mr.  Goodell,  that  "  his  persistent  study 
at  home  and  correspondence  with  England,  involving  an  amount  of 
ingenious  labor  and  thought,  which  but  few  appreciate,  has  helped  to 
a  completeness  and  thoroughness  before  unattained."  Mr.  Goodell, 
it  is  well  known,  has  often  been  consulted  by  law  writers,  historians 
and  judges,  in  this  and  other  states,  on  recondite  matters  of  law,  re- 
quiring historical  research. 

Such  were  the  men  selected  to  undertake  the  publication  of  the 
Province  Laws,  and  who  have,  with  absolute  fidelity,  with  the  highest 
conceptions  of  professional  and  public  duty,  continued  while  life  was 
spared,  to  save  for  us  and  posterity,  in  well  arranged,  well  printed 
but  not  expensive  books,  the  musty  records  of  our  noble  Common- 
wealth, that  might  at  any  hour  have  been  destroyed  by  fire. 

Do  I  anticipate  the  comment  of  my  reader,  familiar  with  political 
affairs  of  the  day,  if  at  this  point  he  exclaims,  "  All  very  true,  but 
how  much  money  did  they  get  out  of  it?" 

In  the  year  1853  the  Commonwealth  resolved  that  the  Massachu- 
setts Colony  Records  should  be  printed,  as  requested  by  Gov. 
Clifford.  The  cost  of  preparing  and  printing  these  five  volumes  was 
$41,834.44.* 

Two  years  later,  from  fear  that  the  Ancient  Records  of  Plymouth 
Colony  might  be  destroyed  by  fire,  they  were  ordered  to  be  copied 
and  printed.  The  wisdom  of  this  measure  will  be  very  apparent  to 
those  who  witnessed  the  condition  of  the  floor  of  the  Plymouth  Court 
House,  after  the  fire  which  occurred  there  within  a  year  or  two.  The 
Plymouth  Records  consisted  of  twelve  volumes,  which,  with  the  five 
previously  printed,  completed  the  two  colonies.  For  printing  these 
twelve  volumes,  there  was  paid  the  sum  of  $47,117.66.f 

The  total  cost  of  preparing  and  printing  the  Province  Laws,  is  as 
follows,  §7T,255,75.| 

The  reader  will  see  that  the  amount  paid  to  Mr.  A.  C.  Goodell, 
Jr.,  in  the  above  statement,  is  $11,837.13.  Now  this  represents,  let 
it  be  remembered,  twenty  years  of  labor  when  next  June  comes ; 
not  work,  from  ten  till  four  o'clock  in  the  day  time,  but  from  early 
morning  to  five  in  the  afternoon,  then  home,  and  work  again  at  night; 
and  his  average  yearly  salary  has  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of 

*  For  Items,  see  Appendix  B. 
f  For  Items,  see  Appendix  C. 
%  For  Items,  see  Appendix  D. 


less  than  six  hundred  dollars  a  year.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
compare  this  amount  with  some  of  the  officers,  who  attend  the  State 
House  during  the  session  only,  or  even  the  gentlemen  who  answer 
bell  calls. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  compare  the  two  publications.  In  the  first 
place,  the  number  of  words  in  the  iwelve  volumes  of  the  Ply- 
mouth and  Massachusetts  Colony  Records  is  estimated  at  2,683,846, 
while  the  number  of  words  in  the  six*  volumes  of  the  Province  Laws, 
including  the  reprint  of  volume  2,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire,  so 
far  is  more  than  4,500,000,  of  which  1,100,000  are  editorial  notes, 
procured  either  in  the  Public  Record  Office  in  London,  or  by  the 
most  laborious  and  exhaustive  research  in  the  poorly  indexed  files 
and  volumes  in  the  State  Archives,  numbering  in  all  about  four  hun- 
dred immense  volumes,  folios  and  manuscripts. 

The  history  of  each  act,  as  far  as  it  could  be  discovered  by  this 
research,  is  given  in  the  notes,  at  the  end  of  the  acts  of  each  year, 
and  a  flood  of  new  light  is  thereby  thrown  upon  the  laws  and  history 
of  the  Province. 

Again,  while  it  has  been  the  purpose  of  the  editor  to  make  these 
notes  clear,  in  every  passage  that  might  by  any  possibility  be  mis- 
construed, he  has  condensed  them  as  much  as  possible,  consistent 
with  a  due  regard  to  making  his  statements  understood,  and  they 
are  in  many  instances  more  valuable  than  the  text  itself. 

The  records  of  towns  and  parishes,  the  pages  of  unpublished  con- 
temporary journals,  and  printed  histories,  have  been  made  to  con- 
tribute to  the  work ;  and  the  public  records  of  each  county,  existing 
before  the  Revolution,  have  been  personally  examined  and  referred 
to,  when  necessary,  by  the  commissioners. 

The  acts  have  not  only  been  compared,  letter  by  letter,  with  the 
original  engrossments,  when  the  engrossments  could  be  found,  but 
also  with  the  contemporaneous  impressions  of  the  acts,  and  all  differ- 
ences carefully  noted. 

The  result  of  this  research  has  been  the  restoration  of  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-seven  acts,  the  engrossments  of  which  had,  in  the 
course  of  time,  been  lost  from  the  Secretary's  office,  and  one  hundred 
arid  thirty-seven  acts  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  any  other  printed 
collection. 

Finally,  it  should  be  remembered,  that  when  some  of  these  volumes 
were  passing  through  the  press,  during  the  period  just  after  the  war, 
the  price  of  composition,  press-work,  paper  and  binding,  was  at  its 
highest. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  first  six  volumes  of  the  Plymouth  Colony 
Records  had  no  editorial  work  done  on  them ;  the  editor  in  his  in- 
troductory remarks,  writes,  "In  the  performance  of  his  duty,  the 
editor  has  studiously  avoided  making  comments  upon  the  subject 

*  See  Appendix  E. 


10 

matter  of  the  records."  The  editor,  therefore,  according  to  his  own 
showing,  was  merely  a  proof  reader,  who  compared  his  sheets  with  a 
single  original  manuscript. 

The  cost  of  the  twelve  volumes  of  the  Plymouth  and  Massachu- 
setts Records  was  $88,962.10.  The  cost  of  the  Province  Laws  is 
$77,505.75. 

Compare  either  of  these  with  the  cost  of  the  Public  Statutes,  which, 
if  I  am  rightly  informed,  cost  $99,687.61,  and  what  was  the  editorial 
work  on  that  ?  Compare  it  with  the  editorial  work  on  the  Memoir  of 
Hon.  Charles  Sumner. 

The  whole  cost  is  considerably  less  than  the  extra  or  "  contingent " 
expenses  of  the  Council  and  Executive  for  the  same  period,  if  the 
Auditor's  statement  for  January,  1884,  is  a  fair  average.  The  com- 
parison might  be  extended  to  either  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supe- 
rior Court  for  their  services  alone ;  while  here  we  have  the  volumes, 
besides  the  labor  involved. 

One  thing  is  clear:  If  the  commissioners'  labors  began  in  1865, 
when  authority  was  first  given  for  the  work,  according  to  the  Gover- 
nor's statement,  their  expenditures  thus  far  have  not  exceeded  $4,000 
a  year,  for  salaries  of  commissioners  and  clerks,  stationery  and  inci- 
dentals, as  well  as  for  composition,  stereotyping,  press-work,  binding, 
and  supplying  to  every  town  in  the  state  the  four  volumes  already 
distributed,  and  for  defraying  all  the  cost  thus  far  of  a  fifth  volume 
nearly  completed. 

I  cannot  believe  that  the  people  of  Massachusetts  are  going  to 
consider  the  cost  of  this  edition  of  the  Province  Laws  as  burden- 
some, when  they  understand  the  matter.  Four  thousand  a  year  would 
be  about  four  mills  per  capita  throughout  the  state. 

Will  the  citizens  of  Boston,  who  pay  forty-two  per  cent,  of  the 
State  tax,  refuse  to  contribute  $1,680,  less  than  one  junketing  bill,  to 
have  the  old  records  preserved  and  made  available  for  use,  or  is  it 
more  advantageous  to  spend  it  for  wine  and  cigars.  The  City  of 
Boston  has  done  nobly  in  perpetuating  her  own  records.  Ten  vol- 
umes, containing  an  enormous  amount  of  information,  have  been  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  country;  and  antiquaries,  historians  and 
lawyers  are  no  longer  subject  to  the  inconvenience  and  loss  of  time 
it  used  to  take,  to  consult  the  original  unindexed  records.  One  can 
always  find  a  copy  at  the  public  libraries  throughout  the  state,  and 
some  individuals  are  fortunate  enough  to  own  a  set.  If  one  thinks 
the  Province  Laws  are  valueless,  buy  a  set,  keep  it  twenty  years,  and, 
with  the  plates  of  the  first  volume  burned,  judging  from  our  know- 
ledge of  the  value  of  earlier  editions,  they  will  bring  a  very  large 
price. 

In  order  that  the  Governor  may  better  understand  the  scope  of 
this  work,  we  shall  endeavor  to  show  what  value  was  placed  by  his 
illustrious  predecessors  upon  the  Province  Laws,  what  efforts  they 
made  to  save  them,  and  preserve,  in  the  best  manner,  a  collection  of 


11 

statutes  which  should  show,  in  chronological  sequence,  the  develop- 
ment of  our  legislation. 

At  the  same  time  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  place  on  record,  the  money 
value  which  individual  searchers  place  on  these  musty,  faded,  yellow 
pages.  It  may  help  us  all  to  realize  the  value  of  the  new  edition  a 
hundred  years  from  now. 

During  the  period  of  the  first  charter,  between  the  years  1628  and 
1691,  three  editions  of  the  laws  were  published,  in  1648,  1660, 
1672.  A  single  copy  of  the  edition  of  1648,  if  it  could  be  found, 
would  easily  bring  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  persons  are  known  to 
the  writer  who  will  pay  that  amount  for  it  to-day.  Copies  of  the 
editions  of  1660  and  1672,  with  the  supplements  complete,  are  worth 
as  much  as  "  Eliot's  Indian  Bible  "  or  the  "  Bay  Psalin  Book."  Of 
the  two  copies  of  this  edition  in  Boston,  one  at  the  State  Library  and 
one  at  the  Athenaeum,  neither  are  complete,  as  both  lack  supplements. 

During  the  time  of  the  second  charter,  between  1692  and  1774, 
Sir  William  Phipps,  on  the  sixteenth  of  December,  1692,  ordered  the 
"  Acts  and  Laws  made  by  the  Great  and  General  Court,  or  Assembly, 
of  this  their  Majesty's  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New 
England,  to  be  printed,  that  so  the  people  might  be  informed  there- 
of ;"  and  it  was  done.  In  1713,  the  Governor,  Council,  and  Assembly 
ordered  the  Acts  and  Laws,  since  the  second  charter,  to  be  reprinted, 
and  it  was  done  the  following  year;  but  a  copy  with  the  supple- 
ments is  rare  now-a-days;  and  yet  it  was  distributed  in  all  the  towns 
of  the  Province,  as  this  new  edition  will  be  in  all  the  towns  of  the 
Commonwealth. 

In  1726  another  reprint  was  issued,  with  supplements  running  to 
1742;  a  perfect  copy,  with  its  whole  number  of  seven  hundred  and 
eighty-nine  pages,  would  set  a  biblophile  wild. 

In  August,  1742,  the  laws  were  again  revised  and  reprinted  in 
two  volumes;  one  of  Temporary  and  one  of  Perpetual  Laws;  the 
former  were  continued,  with  supplements,  up  to  1755,  and  the  latter 
until  1760.  A  perfect  copy  of  either  is  rarely  seen,  owing  to  the 
loss  of  the  supplements. 

In  1752  Lieut.  Gov.  Phips  reminded  the  Council  and  Represen- 
tatives that  many  of  the  laws  were  "  obsolete  and  others  by  frequent 
additions,  amendments  and  alterations  are  rendered  difficult  to  be 
understood  and  variously  construed  and  practised  upon."  Again  in 
a  letter  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  under  date  of  Jan.  24, 1753,  he  says: 

"  I  am  not  to  confine  you  to  any  particular  form  in  your  proceeding,  but 
I  must  recommend  to  you  a  plau  which  has  been  executed  by  one  of  His 
Majesty's  other  Govern'8  with  very  good  success,  a  Copy  of  which  shall 
also  be  laid  before  you.  It  is  generally  allowed  that  there  is  no  juster  way 
of  forming  a  Judgment  of  the  wisdom  of  any  People  than  by  their  body  of 
Laws;  it  behoves  you  the  -efore  to  give  the  greatest  attention  to  what  I 
now  propose  to  you,  and  as  it  is  a  work  that  will  require  much  time  and 
close  application  you  cannoi  too  soon  engage  upon  it." 


12 

Later  Gov.  Shirley  made  a  speech  on  the  necessity  of  a  revision 
of  the  laws,  fully  setting  forth  the  advantages  of  such  a  work,  and 
arguing  against  numerous  objections  which  the  members  of  the  As- 
sembly, who  had  no  idea  of  the  value  the  work  would  be  to  pos- 
terity, were  ready  to  offer. 

On  August  21,  1756,  the  Governor  sent  the  following  message  to 
the  Council  and  House : 

"  I  have  repeatedly  recommended  to  former  assemblies  the  appointing  a 
committee  to  revise  the  laws  of  this  Province,  the  particular  plan  of  which 
has  been  laid  before  those  assemblies,  and  may  now  be  found  in  your  files. 
I  cannot  permit  this  court  to  rise  without  again  urging  a  consideration  of 
this  matter,  it  appears  to  me  a  matter  of  great  moment;  besides  the  inac- 
curacy of  some  of  your  laws,  there  are  many  which  militate  one  with  another, 
and  others  are  expressed  in  ambiguous  terms,  so  as  to  render  the  construc- 
tion various  and  frequently  altering;  all  which  is  not  only  dishonorable  to 
the  legislature  but  must  be  of  bad  consequence  to  the  people  of  the  govern- 
ment. You  must  be  convinced,  Gentlemen,  that  I  have  nothing  in  view  but 
the  real  advantage  of  the  Province,  and  I  hope  you  will  engage  in  the  affair 
without  delay." 

In  1755  the  Temporary  Laws,  then  in  force,  were  printed,  and 
continued  by  the  addition  of  supplements  to  1763,  when  another 
edition  was  prepared,  which  was  continued  by  supplements  down 
to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  None  of  those  can  be  picked  up  in 
"  Ye  Antique  Bookstore." 

In  1759  an  edition  of  the  Perpetual  Laws  then  in  force  was 
printed,  and  supplements  to  it  were  published  each  session  up  to  1774. 

Many  attempts  were  made  in  pre-rcvolutionery  days  by  the  patriots 
to  revise  the  Provincial  Laws,  supply  omissions  and  correct  errors. 
This  most  interesting  period  of  our  history,  the  embryonic  era,  is 
most  fully  set  forth  in  these  law  books,  for,  in  addition  to  the  Acts 
of  the  Province,  all  the  Acts  of  Parliament,  which  led  to  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution,  are  usually  bound  up  with  them. 

In  1771  James  Otis  reported,  in  behalf  of  a  committee,  that  "they 
find  a  great  number  of  the  standing  laws  omitted  in  the  last  impres- 
sion, and  some  in  the  impression  of  the  last  but  one  of  the  Perpetual 
Laws,  and  also  some  laws  left  out  of  the  last  impression  of  the 
Temporary  Laws,  and  that  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  have  a 
new  edition  of  the  Perpetual  and  Temporary  Laws  of  the  Province." 
This  however  failed  to  meet  the  approval  of  Hutchinson,  not  only 
Governor,  but  Chief  Justice,  as  will  appear  by  the  following  letter, 
now  for  the  first  time  printed,  dated  at  Boston,  March  20,  1773,  and 
addressed  to  Lord  Dartmouth. 

"  I  am  obliged  also  to  acquaint  your  Lordship  that  a  vote  has  passed  the 
two  Houses  both  in  this  and  the  former  Session  for  a  new  impression  of 
the  Province  laws  which  have  been  some  time  out  of  Print.  I  think  that 
printing  the  laws  may  very  properly  be  claimed  as  part  of  the  Prerogative, 
but  in  the  Colonies  it  is  attended  with  expences,  as  no  Printer  will  under- 


13 

take  it  unless  a  sufficient  number  of  books  be  engaged  and  therefore  in  this 
Colony,  and  I  believe  generally,  it  has  been  done  by  a  vote  of  the  General 
Court  originated  with  the  Representatives,  and  the  care  of  the  impression 
left  with  a  Committee,  and  I  refused  my  assent  to  these  votes  because  I  found 
it  to  be  the  declaration  of  one  or  more  of  the  members  of  the  House  that 
none  of  the  Acts  of  Parliament  which  are  printed  with  the  Province  Laws 
should  be  brought  into  the  new  impression.  I  should  have  thought  it  of  less 
importance  if  it  had  not  evidently  proceeded  from  the  denial  of  the  authority 
of  those  and  all  other  Acts  of  Parliament  which  immediately  respect  us,  and 
I  think  myself  obliged  to  mention  it  to  your  Lordship  as  a  proof  of  a  fixed 
resolution  to  avoid  acknowledging  the  supremacy  of  Parliament." 

After  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  in  1780,  a  compilation  of 
the  most  important  of  the  unrepealed  laws  of  the  Province  was  pre- 
pared, under  a  resolve  of  February  28,  1799,  by  a  committee  ap- 
pointed to  edit  the  laws.  It  was  issued  in  1801,  and  in  1807  it  was 
so  scarce  that  it  was  reprinted.  In  1814  this  edition  was  in  turn 
exhausted,  and  another  and  more  complete  collection  of  the  Laws  of 
the  Colony  and  Province  appeared,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Charters 
and  General  Laws  of  the  Colony  and  Province  of  Massachusetts 
Bav."  This  volume  contained  the  acts  passed  during  the  Revolution ; 
the  labor  was  performed  by  the  late  Hon.  James  Savage,  under  the 
direction  of  Nathan  Dane,  Judge  Story  and  Judge  Prescott,  who 
were  the  commissioners,  selected  by  the  highest  wisdom  of  this  era 
in  our  history,  as  the  most  capable  and  learned  in  the  State ;  this 
book  has  been  out  of  print  for  years. 

This  edition  of  1814  contained  only  eight  hundred  and   sixteen 

pages  of  Laws  of  the  Colony  and  Province,  covering  a  period  of 

•one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  while  the  first  volume  of  the  Province 

Laws,  of  the  edition  now  in  press,  covering  only  twenty-two  years, 

makes  a  volume  of  over  nine  hundred  pages. 

The  following  examples  will  show  the  value  of  the  new  light 
thrown  upon  legal  matters  in  this  ably  edited  book,  The  Province 
Laws. 

In  Vol.  I.  p.  172,  in  the  margin,  reference  is  made  to  I.  Gray, 
p.  1 19,  where  neither  court  nor  counsel  finding  authority  "that  the 
age  of  consent,  in  marriage,  as  fixed  by  the  common  law,  is  the  rule 
iii5  force  in  this  Commonwealth,  the  court  decided  in  an  elaborate 
opinion  that  the  common  law  rule  prevailed  here  on  general  princi- 
ples, there  being  no  rule  established  by  statute."  But  by  the  publi- 
cation of  this  book  it  appears  that  there  was  actually  an  unrepealed 
act  of  the  Province  conclusive  on  the  point,  the  knowledge  of  which 
would  have  saved  both  court  and  counsel  much  useless  research,  and 
that  the  age  of  consent  was,  for  a  man,  fourteen  years ;  for  a  woman, 
twelve.  See  Act,  1694-5,  chap.  5,  §  5. 

Mr.  Goodell  has  an  elaborate  note  in  Vol.  I.  p.  363,  in  which  it 
appears  that  our  copy  of  the  Province  charter  of  1692  provides  that 
"electors  shall  possess  property  to  the  value  of  forty  pounds  ster- 


14 

ling,"  while  the  original  required  y*/ty.  This  error  found  its  way  into 
the°precepts  for  the  choice  of  representatives,  and  invalidated  all 
proceedings  made  under  it,  as  not  according  to  the  charter. 

Again  in  the  Commonwealth  vs.  Manning,  Dane's  General  Abridg- 
ment and  Digest  of  American  Law,  Vol.  III.  chap.  71,  Art.  5,  Sec. 
8-10,  the  following  statements  appear: 

"  It  was  said  that  this  was  clearly  an  indictment  at  common  law  by  ob- 
structin<r  a  town  watering  place  or  a  common  watering  place,  that  no  indict- 
ment lies  at  common  law  for  obstructing  a  common  watering  place, 

further  that  there  is  no  case  to  be  found  in  the  books  of  an  indictment  for 

obstructing  a  town  watering  place It  has  been  our  practice  to  indict 

nuisances  involving  the  same  principle." 

Yet  in  Vol.  I.  chjap  3,  p.  312  of  the  Province  Laws,  the  Act  of 
1698  clearly  indicates  that  it  was  statute  law. 

The  difference  between  the  torments  of  the  damned  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  living,  are  clearly  designated  by  the  misspelling  shown 
in  Vol.  I.  p  430  of  the  Province  Laws,  correcting  the  ancient  printer. 

"  And  whereas,  through  the  anguish  of  the  [deceased]  [diseased]  testator, 
or  through  his  solicitous  intention  though  in  health,  or  through  the  oversight 
of  the  scribe,  some  of  the  testator's  children  are  omitted  and  not  mentioned 
in  the  will,  many  children  also  being  borne  after  the  makeing  of  the  will, 
tho  in  the  life-time  of  their  parents." 

On  the  question,  whether  one  single  act  concerning  witchcraft  was 
passed  to  be  enacted,  in  1711,  such  interest  has  been  evoked  among 
historians  and  lawyers,  that  four  pamphlets  have  already  been  printed 
from  papers  read  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  and 
the  Antiquarian  Society  at  Worcester,  and  one  more  pamphlet  is  now " 
in  press,  which  will  probably  call  forth  another. 

Of  the  importance  of  their  preservation  by  publication,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  quote  from  the  preface  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Province 
Laws. 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  congratulation,  surely,  that  the  original  engrossments 
of  the  province  laws  incomplete  though  they  be,  have  so  generally  withstood 
decav  and  the  ravages  of  vermin,  and  have  been  preserved  from  the  con- 
flagrations which,  more  than  once,  during  the  provincial  period  destroyed 
so  many  valuable  public  records  and  tiles,  and  it  is  not  less  fortunate  that  there 
were  societies  and  individuals  interested  in  the  preservation  of  the  printed 
acts  before  the  late  improvements  in  paper  making  had  increased  their  value 
for  the  manufacturer's  purposes." 

These  Province  Laws  form  a  part  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
state.  At  the  present  moment,  all  our  laws  relating  to  the  govern- 
ment and  prudential  affairs  of  towns, — state  valuation,  apportionment 
and  arf.ses.--mi.-nt  of  taxe.s,  the  establishment  of  courts  and  forms  of 
writs  and  processes,  the  rules  of  practice,  the  summoning  of  juries, 
and  the  subordination  of  Inferior  to  Appellate  Courts,  the  probate 


15 

system,  the  settlement  of  the  estates  of  deceased  persons,  the  sup- 
port of  paupers,  the  punishment  of  criminals,  the  inspection  of  various 
articles  of  merchandise,  the  rules  governing  domestic  relations,  the 
conveyance  of  lands  and  the  registration  of  deeds,  the  general 
frame- work  of  the  three  great  departments  of  government,  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive,  and  their  relation  to  each  other,  the  appoint- 
ment of  sheriffs,  coroners,  constables,  and  other  officers  of  the  peace 
— are  all  derived  from  the  laws  of  the  Colony  and  Province,  and 
most  of  them  exist  to-day  without  substantial  chanjje.  The  old  laws, 
under  which  all  these  were  established,  as  the  result  of  experience, 
must  necessarily  be  constantly  referred  to,  in  order  to  ascertain  from 
their  preambles  and  fulness  of  expression  the  true  meaning  of  the 
condensed  modern  statutes,  into  which  they  have  been  compressed. 

Such  being  the  facts,  these  Province  Laws  will  be  recognized  as 
invaluable  in  all  courts.  Does  not  this  alone  warrant  the  continua- 
tion of  the  same  ? 

In  the  preservation  of  documents  illustrating  its  early  history, 
Massachusetts  holds  an  enviable  and  honorable  place  among  other 
states.  Her  Archives  are  rich  mining  fields  for  obtaining  material 
for  events  yet  unpublished.  The  old  volumes  contain  the  foundation 
of  historical  knowledge;  they  are  continually  throwing  new  light 
upon  affairs  which,  but  for  their  preservation,  would  have  been  buried 
in  oblivion.  By  their  means,  a  diligent  seeker  after  truth  is  able  to 
furnish  data  which  will  demolish  inexact  and  careless  writers;  they 
have  been  searched  diligently.  When  a  lawyer  wanted  to  find  some 
particular  act  or  resolve;  when  the  writer  of  a  town  history  wanted 
to  find  the  act  incorporating  it  as  a  precinct,  district,  or  town,  he 
was  obliged  formerly  to  spend  days  and  sometimes  weeks  in  the 
search  for  it,  for  want  of  good  indexes.  Now  these  volumes  of  the 
Province  Laws  are  all  thoroughly  and  carefully  indexed,  and  it  is 
easy  to  draw  from  them  the  richest  treasures  of  the  wisdom  and 
experience  of  the  past. 

Few  men  have  leisure  to  write  books,  and  fewer  still  have  the  re- 
quisite skill  and  knowledge  on  subjects  of  law  and  history,  for  it  re- 
quires an  immense  amount  of  time  and  research  to  render  an  article 
accurate,  reliable,  and  interesting. 

The  fifth  volume,  as  has  been  stated,  soon  to  be  issued,  will  close 
all  the  Public  Acts  down  to  1780. 

The  commissioners  in  their  preface  foreshadow  what  they  desire 
and  purpose  to  do,  as  follows :  "  All  Acts  of  Parliament  in  force  in 
or  affecting  the  Province;  all  private  acts,  in  full;  all  votes  of  the 
General  Court  granting  lands,  establishing  districts,  precincts,  and 
parishes,  and  determining  territorial  boundaries ;  all  votes  in  the  nature 
of  declaratory  acts  or  judicial  decisions  concerning:  the  interpretation 
of  the  charter,  the  rules  of  the  common  law,  and  the  jurisdiction  and 
powers  of  the  judicial  courts;  all  executive  action  in  respect  to  the 
organization  of  tribunals  and  the  appointment  of  public  officers  in 


16 

which,  by  the  charter,  the  legislature  had  no  part,  and  all  decisions 
of  parliamentary  law,  are  reserved  for  the  appendix;  to  which  it  has 
been  deemed  proper  to  add  a  complete  list  of  the  sessions  of  the 
General  Court,  and  such  matters  of  historical  importance  found  in 
the  public  records,  as  seemed  of  use  to  illustrate  the  progress  of 
civilization,  the  amelioration  of  laws  and  manners,  and  the  action  of 
physical  causes  which  affect  society  directly,  or  in  their  operation 
upon  the  sources  of  human  comfort  and  sustenance." 

The  sixth  volume  will  contain  what  are  known  as  the  Private  Acts, 
but  these  will  occupy  only  a  small  portion  of  the  book,  or  appendix, 
for  which  the  commissioners  have  been  preparing  a  full  collection  of 
all  unprinted  votes  and  resolves  relating  to  the  establishment  of 
towns,  parishes,  and  districts.  By  referring  to  the  index,  the  mem- 
ber from  "  Cranberry  Centre  "  can  trace  out  the  ancient  history  for 
himself  of  his  own  town,  fix  the  original  grant,  and  follow  its  landed 
history  through  the  changes  of  precinct,  district,  and  town.  To 
all  searchers  of  history,  or  lawyers,  and  legislators,  this  sixth 
volume  will  be  of  great  use  and  importance,  as  the  searches  which 
are  carefully  being  made  are  in  the  forty-five  ponderous  folios  of  the 
General  Court  Records,  the  two  hundred  and  ninety-nine  volumes  of 
the  "  Archives,"  the  twenty-five  manuscript  volumes  of  Council 
Records,  the  sixty-seven  volumes  of  the  House  Journals,  and  outside 
of  the  State  House,  in  libraries  and  public  offices,  from  the  Lenox 
Library  in  New  York  to  the  State  House  at  Augusta,  Maine. 

We  have  already  shown  with  how  much  avidity  the  ancient  pre- 
decessors of  His  Excellency  sought  to  have  the  laws  printed  and  pre- 
served. Let  us  now  come  down  to  more  modern  days.  There  was 
once  a  governor,  named  John  A.  Andrew.  In  his  inaugural  address 
delivered  Jan.  5,  1861,  he  says,  in  regard  to  the^Provincial  Statutes: 

"  I  earnestly  recommend  the  collection  and  publication  under  the  patron- 
age of  the  Commonwealth,  of  the  statutes  enacted  between  the  time  of  the 
union  of  the  two  colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay,  under  the 
Charter  of  William  and  Mary  1691,  and  that  of  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  1780.  Not  more  than  a  moiety  of  these  Provincial  Laws  are 
to  be  found  among  the  accumulations  of  the  State  Library;  but  the  zeal  and 
intelligent  industry  of  one  gentleman  of  the  bar,  has  enabled  him,  after 
years  of  careful  search,  to  complete  a  collection  of  them.  They  are  of 
inestimable  value  on  account  of  their  historical  interest,  their  usefulness  in 
throwing  light  upon  subsequent  legislation,  and  the  assistance  which  they 
afford  in  the  determination  of  many  important  questions  mooted  by  the 
profession  and  the  courts." 

Again  on  March  20,  1861,  the  lawyer  as  well  as  the  governor  of 
the  Commonwealth  utters  his  sentiments  : 

"By  the  constitution  of  the  Commonwealth  the  statutes  of  the  Province, 
Colony  and  State  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  not  repugnant  to  that  constitution, 
are  continued  in  force  until  altered  or  repealed  by  the  legislature.  As 
there  has  been  no  general  repeal  of  these  statutes,  many  of  them  are  still 


17 

part  of  the  law  of  the  land,  and  a  much  larger  number  are  subjects  of 
frequent  reference  in  controversies  relating  to  facts  which  occurred,  or  titles 
which  become  vested,  while  they  are  in  force.  As  time  goes  on,  and  the 
knowledge  of  these  laws,  derived  from  memory  and  tradition,  disappears, 
the  importance  of  making  them  publicly  known  increases, 

"  A  few  examples  will  illustrate  the  present  operation  of  these  statutes 
better  than  any  general  statement.  Cases  involving  the  settlement  of 
paupers,  and  the  construction  of  ancient  deeds  and  wills,  are  very  familiar. 
Some  statutes  of  the  Province,  affecting  the  titles  of  valuable  lands,  are  not 
to  be  found  except  in  the  old  and  rare  folio  editions.  Instances  of  the 
application  of  such  statutes  may  be  found  in  Holland  v.  Cruft,  3  Gray,  164, 
173,  and  Brown  v.  Wenham,  10  Met.  498." 

4<  There  can  be  no  better  evidence  of  the  importance  and  even  necessity 
of  publishing  these  statutes  than  the  recent  decision  of  the  supreme  judicial 
court,  by  which  the  title  of  the  Commonwealth  was  established  in  a  very 
valuable  tract  of  land  in  the  Back  Bay.  That  judgment  was  based  in  great 
part  upon  the  early  Acts  of  the  Colony,  relating  to  the  organization  of 
towns,  then  recently  rendered  accessible  in  the  publication  by  the  state  of 

the  Massachusetts  Colony  Records. 

****  **#* 

"  The  Provincial  Statutes,  whether  public  or  private,  in  force  or  repealed, 
are  of  the  greatest  value  in  the  interpretation  of  the  existing  statutes  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  even  of  the  constitution  itself.  It  is  a  familiar  rule  in 
the  construction  of  statutes,  frequently  applied  by  the  courts,  that  all  Acts 
upon  the  same  subject,  at  whatever  times  passed,  must  be  construed  together 

as  one  Act. 

****  **** 

"  In  a  historical  point  of  view,  the  importance  of  the  Provincial  Statutes 
can  hardly  be  exaggerated,  covering,  as  they  do,  the  whole  history  of  the 
Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  from  the  union  of  the  Colonies  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth  to  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth,  and 
having  had  a  great  influence  on  the  legislation  of  the  other  colonies. 

"  Yet,  owing  to  negligence  in  collecting  the  sessions  laws  as  they  were 
published,  and  accidental  destruction  or  dispersion  of  such  collections  as 
were  made,  these  laws,  which  ought  to  be  easily  accessible  to  every  lawyer 
and  judge,  every  legislator  and  town  officer,  and  every  historical  student, 
are  in  fact  within  the  reach  of  very  few.  The  State  Library  does  not  con- 
tain more  than  one  half  of  them ;  and  there  are  probably  not  more  than 
half  a  dozen  libraries  in  the  Commonwealth,  public  and  private,  which 
comprehend  so  many  as  that.  The  only  set  which  approaches  completeness, 
and  which,  by  many  years  of  judicious  and  indefatigable  research  and  con- 
stant and  zealous  industry,  has  been  rendered  so  nearly  perfect  that  any 
trifling  deficiencies  in  it  can  be  easily  supplied,  is  that  of  Ellis  Ames,  Esq., 
of  Canton,  who  has  most  kindly  and  liberally  offered  to  the  Commonwealth 
the  use  of  this  invaluable  collection  in  the  preparation  of  any  edition  which 
they  may  desire  to  publish. 

'•  The  collection  of  "  the  Charters  and  General  Laws  of  the  Colony  and 
Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  published  by  order  of  the  General  Court 
in  1814,  and  usually  cited  as  "the  Ancient  Charters,"  as  is  well  known  to 
every  one  who  has  had  occasion  to  pursue  any  legal  or  historical  inquiry 
in  the  time  of  the  Colony  or  Province,  is  very  incomplete  and  inaccurate, 
and  omits  many  public  and  general  statutes,  and  all  the  local  and  special 
ones." 


18 

On  the  third  of  January,  1862,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  tremendous 
labor  for  the  salvation  of  the  state,  and  the  comfort  of  the  soldiers, 
he  does  not  forget  the  little  wooden  shanty  at  Canton,  and  the 
terrible  loss  to  the  bar  and  the  historian,  if  a  match  were  carelessly 
dropped  by  some  departing  client  who  loved  his  pipe. 

"  Of  even  superior  importance  in  every  point  of  view,  is  the  preservation 
by  publication,  of  the  Provincial  Statutes  of  Massachusetts  covering  a 
period  of  nearly  a  century,  from  1691  to  1780,  the  only  complete  collec- 
tion of  which  iu  existence  has  been  gathered  in  one  private  library  in  the 
Commonwealth,  and  is  subject  to  all  the  risks  of  loss,  destruction,  and  dis- 
persion, to  which  private  property  is  necessarily  liable.  In  my  Inaugural 
Address  to  the  General  Court  of  1861,  I  had  the  honor  earnestly  to  recom- 
mend the  printing  of  these  statutes,  and  I  desire  earnestly  to  repeat  that 
recommendation." 

Even  in  the  darkest  days,  when  the  currency  was  at  its  lowest 
depreciation,  his  loyal  enthusiasm  could  not  forbear  again  mentioning 
a  subject  that  was  evidently  near  the  heart  of  the  never-to-be-for- 
gotten "  War  Governor.*"  In  his  address  on  the  6th  of  January, 
1865,  his  arms  being  held  up  by  the  members  of  one  of  Massachu- 
setts' most  honored  and  venerable  societies,  he  spoke  these  words : 

"  I  received  yesterday  from  a  committee  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  a  letter,  which  I  enclose  with  this  communication,  concerning  the 
needed  republication  of  our  Provincial  Statutes — which  at  the  various  ses- 
sions of  the  General  Court,  when  propositions  for  such  publication  have 
been  pending,  has  met  your  approval  and  support.  In  my  address  to  the 
General  Court  at  the  session  of  1861,  I  had  the  honor  to  urge  the  subject 
upon  its  attention,  and  a  careful  report  earnestly  recommending  the  publi- 
cation was  made  to  the  Senate  by  the  committee  of  which  Hon.  Mr. 
Whiting  was  chairman.  The  resolves  reported  by  the  committee  failed, 
however,  to  be  passed.  In  my  address  to  the  General  Court  of  1862,  I 
again  presented  the  subject.  In  1863  and  1864  allusion  was  made  to  it 
occasionally  in  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Court  and  its  committees, 
but  no  legislative  action  was  taken — not,  I  think,  from  any  positive  want  of 
interest  in  the  measure,  but  from  the  greater  impression  produced  by  other 
matters  of  more  immediate  importance,  and  the  opinion  that  this  one  may 
wait  yet  longer. 

"So  that  now  in  1865,  as  in  1861,  the  only  complete  collection  of  our 
Provincial  Statutes  exists  in  the  library  of  a  private  citizen,  liable  to  all  the 
hazards  of  fire  and  the  ordinary  accidents  to  which  any  private  library  is 
exposed.  If  this  collection  should  be  dispersed  or  destroyed,  the  importance 
of  it  would  be  realized  at  once.  The  loss  to  the  historian  of  the  Common- 
wealth would  be  irreparable;  and  also  to  the  jurist.  There  would  remain 
no  complete  series  of  the  legislative  acts  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts, 
covering  that  great  and  most  interesting  period  of  our  judicial  as  well  as 
political  history  from  1691,  under  the  charter  of  William  and  Mary,  down 
to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  in  1780.  Nor  could 
the  loss  be  repaired." 

*  See  Appendix  E. 


19 

We  have  only  space  to  quote  one  more  Governor,  upon  whose 
shoulders  appears  to  have  fallen  the  mantle  of  love  and  reverence 
for  ancient  law  and  history,  of  this  glorious  Commonwealth,  that 
was  so  conspicuous  in  Gov.  Andrew. 

We  quote  from  Gov.  Alexander  H.  Bullock's  address,  in  1866 : 

"  My  predecessor  twice  in  his  annual  address  earnestly  recommended  the 
collection  and  publication  of  the  Provincial  Laws,  as  of  inestimable  value. 
In  1865  a  Resolve  was  passed  for  the  appointment  of  Commissioners  to 
prepare  for  publication,  at  some  future  time,  a  complete  copy  of  our  Acts 
and  Laws,  from  May,  1692,  down  to  the  Constitution,  including  all  legislative 
Acts  of  legal  and  historical  importance  appearing  on  the  General  Court 
Records.  Commissioners  were  appointed  accordingly,  who  state  to  me  that 
there  can  be  procured  an  entire  series  of  the  printed  pamphlets  of  all  such 
Acts  and  Laws  engrossed  on  parchment  as  the  General  Court  saw  fit  to 
publish  at  the  end  of  each  session,  from  May,  1692.  down  to  October  25, 
1780,  in  ten  folio  volumes;  but  that  there  are  very  many  enactments  or 
laws,  during  that  period,  never  engrossed  on  parchment,  or  printed,  but  ex- 
tended in  manuscript  upon  the  General  Court  Records,  of  legal  or  historical 
importance,  including  the  incorporation  of  some  towns  and  of  many  pre- 
cincts or  parishes ;  to  gather  all  of  which  would  require  a  careful  examina- 
tion and  discreet  selection  from  twenty-six  volumes  of  those  Records.  The 
Commissioners  suggest  that  the  means  provided  by  the  Resolve  are  inade- 
quate for  so  considerable  a  work,  and  express  a  hope  that,  if  the  General 
Court  shall  deem  the  work  worthy  of  completion,  the  Resolve  may  be 
amended,  and  more  specific  or  precise  directions  be  given.  The  landmarks 
of  our  legislation  and  jurisprudence  ought  to  be  clearly  defined  and  sacredly 
preserved,  and  the  suggestion  of  the  Commissioners  will,  I  trust,  receive 
your  approval." 

The  North  American  Review  has  been  considered  by  most  Ameri- 
cans as  one  of  the  ablest  literary  productions  in  the  country,  its 
standard  is  high,  and  among  the  contributors  are  the  ablest  minds 
in  literature.  Its  statements  carry  weight,  particularly  when  the 
author  is  known,  although  it  is  not  the  custom  to  have  communications 
signed  in  its  columns,  and  this  is  no  exception  to  the  rule. 

The  following  notice  appeared  in  the  pages  of  the  North  American 
Review,  Vol.  III.  p.  245,  after  the  publication  of  the  first  volume  of 
the  Province  Laws. 

"  To  undertake  to  comment  on  the  contents  of  a  thick  statute  book  would 
be  something  like  attempting  to  make  an  abstract  of  a  dictionary.  A 
thoughtful  reader  of  this  volume  will  see  reason  to  apply  to  many  and  many 
a  page  the  remark  forced  from  the  unfriendly  but  able  and  knowing  Chal- 
mers, when  he  compared  New  England  with  the  colonies  of  the  South.  In 
cases  where  the  legislation  of  Massachusetts  did  not  cross  the  higher  powers 
at  home,  he  was  clear-sighted,  and  fair  enough  often  to  see  and  praise  its 
wisdom.  Writing  nearly  a  century  after  the  enactment  of  some  laws  which 
he  named  of  the  early  provincial  period,  he  said  that  they  '  not  only  marked 
the  spirit  of  the  people,  but  were  probably  the  cause  of  the  most  lasting 
consequences,'  and  that  'to  these  .salutary  regulations  much  of  the  populous- 
ness  and  of  the  commerce  of  the  Massachusetts  is  owing.'  The  course  of 


20 

nearly  another  prosperous  century  has  now  added  its  testimony  to  the  whole 
soundness  and  durable  efficacy  of  those  primitive  regulations,  and  this,  too, 
in  respect  to  matters  more  vital  than  were  dreamed  of  in  the  philosophy  of 
that  juiceless  economist."  • 

Again,  on  the  issue  of  the  second  volume,  the  North  American 
Review  thus  mentions  it,  Vol.  CXX.  pp.  229,  et  seq. 

"  The  second  volume  of  the  Provincial  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  prepared 
by  Mr.  Ames  and  Mr.  Goodell,  under  the  authority  of  the  Commonwealth, 
was  all  but  ready  for  publication,  when  the  whole  edition  with  the  stereo- 
type plates  was  destroyed  by  the  great  fire  in  Boston  in  1872.  We  receive 
a  copy  of  the  reprint  just  as  we  dismiss  the  last  sheets  of  thisnuuber.  We 
expressed  our  sense  of  the  singular  value  of  the  work  at  the  time  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  first  volume,  four  years  ago. 

*******  * 

"  This  second  volume  of  the  Provincial  Laws  of  Massachusetts  covers 
the  period  of  the  thirty  years  peace  between  England  and  France  in  the 
reigns  of  the  first  two  kings  of  the  house  of  Hanover.  It  is  the  least  in- 
teresting portion  of  the  Massachusetts  history.  Yet  the  student  of  the 
causes  of  the  growth  of  states  will  find  matter  for  thought  in  observing  the 
arrangements  made  here  from  year  to  year  for  keeping  the  people  safe, 
orderly,  healthy,  peaceable,  intelligent,  industrious,  moral,  and  religious ;  for 
courts  of  justice,  for  churches,  ministers,  and  schools,  for  facilities  of  com- 
munication, for  the  restriction  of  pauperism  and  the  support  of  the  poor,  for 
a  just  distribution  of  public  burdens,  for  the  encouragement  and  control  of 
business. 

We  repeat  that  it  is  impossible  to  speak  in  too  high  praise  of  the  execution 
of  this  work.  Of  course  we  have  not  verified  the  correctness  of  the  copies 
of  the  statutes,  extending  in  the  two  volumes  through  two  thousand  closely 
printed  pages.  But  there  is  every  appearance  of  the  extremest  exactness 
in  the  transcription.  The  book  contains  the  abundant  wealth  of  a  wide 
and  accurate  learning,  and  the  apparatus  of  tables  and  indexes  furnishes  per- 
fectly fitting  keys  for  access  to  the  heaped-up  treasures." 

We  have  stated  that  the  author's  name  was  not  appended  to  the 
above  articles,  but  by  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Poole's  valuable  "  Index 
to  Periodical  Literature,"  a  work  prepared  with  great  labor  and  re- 
search, we  are  able  to  assert  that  these  articles  in  the  North  American 
were  written  by  no  less  a  person  than  John  Gorham  Palfrey,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  a  gentleman,  who  from  his  position  as  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
monwealth for  four  years,  would  alone  entitle  him  to  be  a  competent 
judge  of  the  value  of  these  records,  and  the  way  in  which  they  had 
been  edited;  but  when  we  consider  that  this  high  praise  comes  from 
one,  who,  by  his  exact,  patient,  and  thoughtful  study  of  the  contem- 
poraneous authors  and  documents  of  the  period  of  which  he  wrote, 
his  conscientious  fidelity  to  truth,  his  impartiality,  has  rendered  his 
History  of  New  England  almost  a  classic,  worthy  of  the  men,  the 
measures,  and  the  manners  of  the  period  it  commemorated ;  when  we 
consider  that  one.  sometimes  called  "  the  greatest  historian  of  New 
England,"  has  showered  such  praise  upon  that  portion  of  this  edition 


Insert  p.  21,  after  "historian  and  the  people,"  the  following:  "to  restore 
in  full  the  active  body  of  the  Colony  Laws  under  the  first  charter," 


21 

of  the  Province  Laws  which  met  his  eye,  can  we  believe  that  it  is 
not  worth  continuing? 

An  article,  containing  about  twenty  pages,  written  by  the  Hon. 
Hamilton  B.  Staples,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Superior  Court,  ap- 
peared in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  in 
April,  1884.  It  is  the  freshest  contribution  to  the  value  of  the 
Province  Laws,  as  it  was  written  after  the  appearance  of  the  fourth 
volume.  The  distinguished  jurist  writes : 

"  The  four  large  volumes  already  published  of  the  Acts  and  Resolves  of 
the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  prepared  by  the  Commissioners, 
Mr.  Ellis  Ames  and  Mr.  Abner  C.  Goodell,  Jr.,  embrace  three  quarters  of 
a  century,  viz.:  from  1692-93  to  1768.  These  volumes  supply  abundant 
material  for  the  history  of  the  State  as  well  as  of  many  of  its  municipalities. 
They  enable  us  to  trace  the  development  almost  from  germ  life  of  our  pres- 
ent system  of  laws  and  of  government.  They  show  us  what  the  political 
and  social  life  of  the  province  was,  and  the  perpetuity  of  that  life  under 
new  forms  and  conditions. 

All  through  these  volumes  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  repression.  The 
province  was  allowed  to  manufacture  nothing  that  could  come  into  compe- 
tition with  the  manufactures  of  England.  Although  our  people  yielded  to 
this  claim  they  never  believed  in  its  justice,  and,  as  time  passed  on,  it  proved 
more  and  more  detrimental  to  the  prosperity  of  the  State.  The  necessity 
of  a  change  was  the  one  underlying  cause  of  the  Revolution." 

The  Hon.  George  H.  Moore,  of  New  York,  the  greatest  living 
authority  on  the  value  of  the  Provincial  Laws,  thus  writes  in  regard 
to  their  publishment : 

"  The  careful  chief  Magistrate  might  have  noticed  that  the  professional 
and  scholarly  ability  devoted  to  this  great  work,  to  restore  to  Massachusetts 
a  knowledge  and  use  of  her  entire  Provincial  Legislation,  was  not  very 
costly.  The  expense  of  the  Executive  Department  and  the  whole  legis- 
lative printing  might  be  judiciously  diminished  during  the  next  twenty 
years,  enough  to  provide  four  thousand  dollars  a  year,  to  obtain  results  of 
such  value  to  history,  and  the  historical  reputation  of  Massachusetts,  as  has 
been  secured  by  the  $77,505.77  which  looks  so  formidable  in  the  address. 
No  scholar  who  has  had  occasion  or  opportunity  to  examine  the  volumes 
which  have  been  issued,  can  fail  to  recognize  the  intrinsic  value  of  a  work, 
which  reflects  the  highest  honor  on  the  Commonwealth.  While  it  is  a 
disgrace  to  most  of  our  states  that  their  statutes  at  large  have  never  been 
printed,  it  will  always  be  to  the  lasting  honor  of  Massachusetts,  that  she  will 
not  be  the  last  but  always  the  first,  to  provide  for  the  future  preservation  of 
these  memorials  of  her  honored  past.  I  believe  only  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina  have  preceded  her  in  this  good  work,  and  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  have  produced  anything  to  be  compared  in  thoroughness  and  fidelity 
of  editorial  skill,  with  the  work  of  the  esteemed  and  honored  Goodell.  The 
State  of  Massachusetts  ought  to  pay  him  $5,000  a  year  for  the  rest  of  his 
life,  and  furnish  his  office  with  the  records  of  the  Province  Laws,  complete  and 
accessible,  to  the  lawyer,  historian  and  the  people^that  time,  when  Massa- 
chusetts laid  the  foundations  sure  and  deep  of  the  law  of  the  whole  conti- 
nent, for  true  it  is,  that  Massachusetts  has  given  the  law  to  this  whole 
country,  more  literally  than  her  friends  or  her  enemies  have  ever  cared  to 
assert  or  admit." 


22 

The  more  this  clause  in  Gov.  Robinson's  message  is  considered, 
the  more  difficult  it  is  to  understand  the  motive  that  induced  him  to 
write  it.  He  does  not  suggest  that  the  expense  is  disproportionate 
to  the  work  accomplished.  Can  he  expect  to  have  it  done  for  less  ? 
As  to  the  "  limit  to  the  extent "  of  the  work  concerning  which  the 
Governor  suggests  the  propriety  of  an  inquiry  by  the  Legislature,  it 
would  have  been  well  for  His  Excellency  to  have  pointed  out  ex- 
actly what  obscurity  exists  in  the  resolve  of  the  last  legislature 
(1884,  chap.  56),  which  he  approved  less  than  seven  months  before 
he  prepared  the  above  paragraph  in  his  address.  By  that  resolve 
"the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution"  (Oct.  25,  1780)  is 
expressly  fixed  as  the  limit  of  the  "acts,  laws,  resolves  and  orders" 
which  the  commissioners  are  required  to  print.  It  is  understood 
that  the  fifth  volume,  which  will  include  all  the  public  acts  to  that 
period,  has  been  already  stereotyped  to  the  year  1 7  79.  The  Governor 
has  failed  to  point  out  in  his  message  anything  that  has  occurred 
since  last  May  that  would  justify  a  modification  -of  that  resolve. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  Governor  has  taken  any  special  in- 
terest in  the  work  either  one  way  or  the  other.  Indeed,  it  is  probable 
that  one  so  busily  occupied  in  politics,  and  with  matters  of  national 
concern,  has  had  neither  time  or  inclination  to  examine  the  volumes 
until  very  recently,  and  that  therefore  his  bringing  the  subject  to 
the  attention  of  the  Legislature  at  this  day  was  a  service  to  some  of 
those  about  him  who  have  opposed  the  work  from  the  start,  and  who 
could  not  extort  from  him  a  more  unfavorable  allusion  to  the  work 
than  his  rather  faint  compliment  to  the  manner  of  its  performance. 

We  have  endeavored  to  show  the  value  of  the  work,  and  the  cost 
of  publication ;  if  we  have  fallen  into  any  errors,  there  are  many 
persons  who  can  correct  them. 

As  lovers  of  Massachusetts,  proud  of  her  history  and  anxious  for 
its  preservation,  would  it  be  presumptuous  to  offer  the  following 
suggestions : 

That  if  the  sole  survivor  of  the  original  commissioners  is  still 
the  competent  and  able  man  he  was  when  selected,  if  he  has  increased 
in  wisdom  and  understanding,  if  he  has  done  his  work  with  fidelity 
and  accuracy,  why  should  he  not  continue  the  work  to  its  completion  ? 
That  if  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  has  paid  him  less 
than  six  hundred  dollars  a  year,  during  the  past  twenty  years,  now 
that  the  Governor  has  brought  this  subject  before  the  people  and  the 
Legislature,  would  it  not  be  a  fitting  time  for  this  wealthy  and  intelli- 
gent Commonwealth  to  grant  him  a  compensation  more  nearly  cor- 
responding with  the  value  of  the  services  performed  ? 


23 


APPENDIX  A. 

The  Members  of  the  Norfolk  County  Bar  Association,  at  a  meeting  held 
February  17,  1885,  in  memory  of  the  late  Ellis  Ames,  unite  in  saying: 

"  They  regard  it  as  a  striking  and  impressive  testimony  to  his  legal 
learning  and  professional  fidelity  that,  with  the  exception  of  fire  years 
served  in  the  Legislature  in  the  very  beginning,  Mr.  Ames  devoted  himself 
exclusively  to  the  practice  of  the  law  throughout  his  whole  career  to  the 
close,  and  that  he  had  a  full  and  successful  practice,  not  only  in  Norfolk 
County,  but  in  the  counties  of  Bristol  and  Plymouth,  and  that  he  drew 
clients  and  law  students  from  places  far  and  near  in  these  counties  to  his 
quiet  country  office,  where  his  ample  library,  his  rare  collections  of  pamphlet 
editions  of  the  Laws  of  Massachusetts  and  curious  manuscripts  were  objects 
of  interest  to  every  visitor. 

They  also  remember  with  great  satisfaction  the  extensive  researches  made 
by  Mr.  Ames  into  the  sources  of  the  history  of  the  colonies  of  Plymouth 
and  Massachusetts  Bay ;  his  labors  as  a  commissioner,  under  a  resolve  of 
the  legislature  for  the  publication  of  the  Provincial  Laws ;  his  papers  upon 
special  historical  subjects  for  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  of  which 
he  was  long  a  valuable  member,  and  his  intimate  and  exact  knowledge  of 
family  genealogies,  incidents  and  events,  many  of  which  are  matters  of 
unwritteL  history. 

Finally,  they  would  bear  witness  to  his  high  sense  of  professional  duty ; 
to  his  untiring  zeal  in  maintaining  his  clients'  cause  when  upon  trial;  to 
his  reliance  upon  legal  principle  and  legitimate  evidence  in  the  argument  of 
his  causes  ;  to  his  willingness  to  adjust  controversies  rather  than  needlessly 
to  promote  litigation ;  to  his  singleness  and  discreetness  of  purpose,  and  to 
his  uncompromising  integrity,  all  of  which  qualities  entitled  Ellis  Ames  to 
be  held  in  grateful  and  honorable  remembrance,  both  as  a  lawyer  and  a  man." 

APPENDIX   B. 

The  cost  of  printing  the  Massachusetts  Colony  Records  in  detail,  Resolve 
1853,  chapter  33 : 

For  printing  5  volumes,  including  plates  and  stereotyping  $21,628.12 

Additional  copies  volume  1  and  2           ....  4,362.58 

Reprinting  500  copies  of  each  volume  under  Resolve 

1855,  chapter  19     .         .         ...         .  7,112.10 

N.  B.  Shurtleff,  Editorial  Services          ....  3,500.00 

Clerical  Services 5,231.64 


Total $41,834.44 

APPENDIX  C. 

The  cost  of  printing  the   Plymouth  Colony  Records,  Resolve   1855, 
chapter  19 : 

For  printing  12  volumes $24,649.66 

N.  B.  Shurtleff's  Editorial  Services    ....  7,500.00 

Clerical  Services            ....                  .  14,968.00 

Total       .        .        .        .       ,i        .         .  $47,117.66 


UUSB   LIBRARY 


24 


APPENDIX  D. 

The  total  cost  of  preparing  and  printing  the  Provincial  Laws,  Resolve 
1869,  chapter  87,  is  as  follows : 

Printing  5  volumes $43,150.18 

Clerical  Services       .......  15,038.73 

Bills  of  exchange  for  books 2,347.51 

Travel 1,253.74 

Miscellaneous 

Ellis  Ames,  Editorial 2,926.33 

A. -C.  Goodell,  Jr.,  Editorial 11,837.13 

Commissioners'  pay            ......  750.00 

Total          .'       .        .     ' "."'      .         .         .     $77,505.75 

APPENDIX  E. 

It  is  hardly  fair  to  assess  the  cost  of  these  volumes,  upon  five  volumes, 
when  by  the  postscript  to  the  second  volume  it  appears  that  the  first  edition 
of  that  volume,  together  with  the  stereotype  plates,  was  wholly  destroyed 
by  the  great  fire  of  1872,  and  the  work  had  to  be  done  over  again,  so  that 
in  reality  the  figures  given  by  the  Governor  represent  the  cost  of  five  com- 
plete volumes,  averaging  more  than  one  thousand  pages  each,  and  between 
nine  hundred  and  one  thousand  pages  of  the  sixth  volume.  It  may  be 
mentioned,  in  this  connection,  that  only  one  copy  of  the  advance  sheets  of 
this  volume  was  saved,  having  been  sent  to  a  gentleman  in  Cambridge.  This 
saved  the  commissioners  much  delay,  expense  and  labor.  The  plates  of  all 
the  volumes  of  the  Province  Laws  are  owned  by  the  Commonwealth. 

APPENDIX  F. 

At  a  Regular  Meeting  of  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical 
Society,  holden  at  the  Society's  Rooms,  in  Boston,  March  4th,  A.  D.  1863, 
the  following  resolution  was  offered : — 

WHEREAS,  on  the  27th  day  of  February,  A.  D.  1863,  a  communication 
was  received  by  this  society  from  Henry  Wheatland,  Esq.,  Secretary  of 
the  Essex  Institute,  enclosing  the  resolve  and  vote  of  said  society,  wherein 
they  heartily  approve  of  the  recommendation  of  his  Excellency,  Governor 
Andrew,  in  his  inaugural  addresses  for  the  year  1861  and  1862,  to  the 
Legislature,  for  the  collection  and  publication  of  the  statutes  enacted 
between  the  years  1691  and  1780: — 

Voted,  that  we  fully  concur  with  the  Essex  Institute  in  the  importance 
of  collecting  and  publishing  the  Colonial  Statutes  aforesaid,  and  will  cheer- 
fully join  in  any  proper  measure  to  promote  an  object  of  such  historic 
value ;  and  this  society  would  also  recommend  the  publication  of  the  Journals 
kept  by  the  legislature  during  the  same  period  of  Colonial  history,  as  they 
are  exceedingly  valuable,  and  have  become  very  scarce  and  are  in  danger 
of  being  lost. 

The  above  preamble  and  vote  were  unanimously  adopted. 
A  true  copy  from  the  records. 


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